Contradictory/Adversarial forum members or staff

[Beverly]

Once we had a forum member who was very contradictory in the way he behaved. Sometimes, he seemed normal and polite and very nice to be around. Other times, he was sarcastic and adversarial as if he was agitated or upset. And, I wondered why he would even bother coming to the forum in that mood.

Eventually it turned ugly and one late Friday night, he showed up at the forum and spammed every thread with complaints about receiving forum emails (which he was already signed up for). He could have just unsubscribed or terminated his account, but chose to act out in public. His account was banned after that. And, I'm guessing that's really what he wanted.

Just wondering if you have ever been in a situation with adversarial forum members or staff or those who delight in stirring up trouble? What causes this Jekyll/Hyde personality for some forum members?

 

[Mikaya]

ah, there was this one member who loved attention, and hated the staff for some odd reason. So they stirred up lots of trouble and broke many rules. Heck, they even influenced some staff to get them to step down. Now, that is too much, by any standards. They caused too much drama, but these kind of people can be dealt with swiftly and effectively.

 

[VirusZero]

One forum member, on a site I was staff on years ago, would take shots and make rude and insulting messages to others. When he was told to relax and stop insulting others he couldn't do it. He offered some lame excuse about how it was what he was used to or something like that.

So he was soon banned.

You're only going to get so many warnings before enough is enough and you get booted.

 

[Soapbox]

Exactly, they are on a one way road to the exit. I've seen it many times on other forums. People start to resent this online bullying, and then it's a judgment call as to when you step in to protect your user base. It's amazing how one troll can spoil the vibe for a large number of people. Same as when there is one curmudgeon in a physical family.